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In Reply to: This should be an easy decision posted by Dave Kingsland on May 11, 2005 at 12:06:05:
How much will the Meinter CDSD and DCC2 combined cost? If he has money to blow and no concerns about SACD going bye bye I suppose he'll get what he needs out of this combo. A very poor investment in my opinion but some folks have money to burn. ;-)
Follow Ups:
Well, he did mention dCS in his first post and he asked about the Meitner gear above. The dCS stack (Verdi transport, Purcell upsampler, Elgar Plus DAC) goes for about $35k list and if you add the Verona master clock it's over $40k. The Meitner CDSD and DCC2 together are about $20k list and the DCC2 is also a reference quality pre-amp. Even if the guy never touches a single SACD, he will still be buying a Redbook source and pre-amp that compete with anything out there.Whether or not it's a very poor investment to spend $20k for a digital source and pre-amp is something I can't comment on because it's way out of my price range.
Dave
Yes, I did not mention budget in this post as was looking more for the general info over how concerned I should be on all these formats. I am hoping to come in for a transport/d2a/pre (all in one like Burmester 001, jason transport/medea d2a/rowland 2i preamp for example, cdsd/cdd2 meitner maybe) at 25k or under. A bypass for possibility of hooking up a surround sound processor 'through' they system to my amps would be 'bonus' - heck, it makes the 6 channel meitner interesting as well I guess.Upside of Burmester - under budget and beautiful. Downside of Burmester is no sacd and unlikely to ever accomodate it. I am replacing a Levinson 39 and don't really want all in one again either. They also have yet to reply to any emails for more information and discontinued their 'top line' transport/d2a which hardly inspires confidence in their uprgrade ability.
Meitner combos probably within budget. Not necessarily so keen on combining products (d2a/pre in one box) given my Levinson experience. Look a bit industrial for my tastes; the player in particular while the d2a is 'ok'. They do not accomodate more than 96khz processing - and I am not sure how important that is.
Weiss Jason/Medea and Rowland preamp gets me the modularity I like. Medea can accomodate greater than 96khz processing for what thats worth. Both companies are very responsive to queries via email. A ssp can control the synergy 2i in a surround sound setup. Downside is this is over budget, Weiss units I doubt will ever accomodate sacd regardless of their internal modularity - or at least not anywhere near cost effective so probably unlikely but I could be wrong.
These are my leading contenders at the moment. I do not want tubes. I might get vinyl at some point (which I could get a rowland phono amp for). I just want the most likely future proof front end - granted I know that is tough to do. The dcs is out of my price range and I do not want to buy used - it is also imho so heinously ugly that I just could not stand to look at.
Regards,
Yellowwwwducky
Meitner combos probably within budget. Not necessarily so keen on combining products (d2a/pre in one box) given my Levinson experience. Look a bit industrial for my tastes; the player in particular while the d2a is 'ok'.
You should see the Switchman pre-amp :)
You can use the DCC2 as a standalone DAC too. However, most everybody who has heard one prefers the sound when the DCC2 is connected directly to the amp, using its volume control. There seems to be a trend now to add volume control to high end CD players. I don't know who started it, Wadia maybe. Most everybody hears an improvement when they remove their pre-amp from the chain. But it's hard to take advantage of that feature unless you only have one source. That's one of the reasons why I like the DCC2. I hope we'll see more products in the future that combine a good DAC with minimalist pre-amp functionality.
However, I don't think the DCC2 offers a unity gain bypass option for its analog inputs, so if you connect an external surround processor or other multichannel source you'll have to calibrate at a known volume setting and return to the same volume setting every time you select that source - inconvenient.
They do not accomodate more than 96khz processing - and I am not sure how important that is.
Right now, it's not important at all. Only DVD-A can provide > 96k PCM, and DVD-A copy protection generally forces DVD-A players to downsample or disable the digital output. And even 96k PCM is only available on a handful of DADs (DVD-Video discs with unprotected hi-res PCM).
These are my leading contenders at the moment. I do not want tubes. I might get vinyl at some point (which I could get a rowland phono amp for). I just want the most likely future proof front end - granted I know that is tough to do. The dcs is out of my price range and I do not want to buy used - it is also imho so heinously ugly that I just could not stand to look at.
Unfortunately, I think "future proof front end" is an oxymoron. Even if the formats don't change, the state of the art in digital audio reproduction is moving fast. Within 5 years, it's likely that even the Meitner gear will no longer be considered state of the art.
And Abe is right that SACD is not likely to become a dominant format. It's still growing and new titles are being released all the time, but mostly classical, jazz, and asian music. The major labels who were putting out some pop & rock SACDs have given up for now. It's likely that SACD is going to stick around for some time as a favored audiophile format, but even the format's biggest proponents realize that it's not going to replace the CD.
Dave
It's all relative I suppose. If you can easily afford the $25k who am I to say what is or is not a 'good investment'. Any piece over about $5k gives me discomfort and makes me wonder if I really need it before I commit the cash. Your threshold of spending 'pain' is obviously much higher than mine.... or maybe you feel no pain at all. Best. ;-)
Trust me, it is painful. But I believe it is better to buy what you want the first time than something you don't only to end up upgrading later. If you know you want a ferrari and buy a bmw first, in the end you get the ferrari anyway and end up eating the depreciation on the bmw. So, why not save up and just get the ferrari in the first place and 'save' yourself money in the long run. I cheaped out the last time on my front end part of the system and it crapped out...so now I am needing to replace it and end up eating the cost of the Levinson. Funnily enough the speakers and amps I dropped a bomb on have been bullet proof and are not anywhere near in need of anything other than listening to.
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